Understanding system dividers

Dorico
1

I’m a little puzzled by the options available for system dividers. They are: None, When Number of Staves Changes, and When Minimum Number of Players is X.

I’m guessing that the second option only affects changes within a Flow (i.e. divisi or Add/Remove Staff), as I have a project with lots of Flows with different Player combinations, and I don’t get dividers.

To guarantee dividers everywhere, you have to use “Minimum” with 1; though it would be nice to have a definite “All” button.

I was thinking that I’d like to show dividers in Flows where there are more systems (i.e. fewer players) than ‘the norm’. I guess that suggests a maximum number of Players, too.

Also, is it possible to adjust the vertical position, either globally or individually? I know they are exactly between the systems, but optically, they can look a little low.

Thanks.

1 Like
2

It’s not possible to change their vertical (or indeed horizontal) position. Because they’re not “real” items there’s nowhere convenient for any kind of offsets to live: we would have to add a dedicated structure in each layout’s data to hold this information and as yet we have not deemed it sufficiently important to do so.

Yes, the ‘When number of staves changes’ option is indeed intended for when the number of staves shown in the system changes. That option was requested, if I recall, by people working in the film/TV copying world.

3

Thanks, Daniel: However, the horizontal position can be changed: there’s Inset from Left/Right margin settings in Engraving Options.

4

Right, sorry, what I meant was that you cannot change the horizontal or vertical position of an individual system divider.